“Can truly great men act like demented four-year-olds and get away with it?” this was the subtitle given to a political cartoon written in 1987 by Eric Lurio regarding the Marbury vs. Madison case. Lurio was able to sum up the historical decision in a 3 page cartoon, however, there is much more to the case than described in this rendition. In Marbury vs. Madison (1803) the U.S Supreme Court ruled that Marbury was entitled to his commission as Justice of the Peace for the District of Columbia and that the Judiciary Act of 1789 did provide him a remedy. Marbury claimed that Section 13 of this Act authorized the Court to issue a writ of mandamus under it’s original jurisdiction that now included cases they heard as a trial court. However, the …show more content…
Hence, many cartoonists like Lurio sought to simply the case enough so that it was comprehensible to more people. Lurio’s cartoon kept enough of the facts to move the story along and maintain the basic outline of the case process. To make the cartoon entertaining he used exaggerated illustrations and under exaggerated time frames. In addition, he distorted some of the cases details and added his own personal comments. For this reason Lurio’s cartoon periodically diverges from the original text. Being a cartoon we take much of the comments as comedy but a second analysis reveals Lurio’s comments reflected his opinion on the case and it’s key players. For instance, he addresses Chief Justice Marshall as the “greatest chief justice ever” on page 1 of the cartoon. He references Congress as “the lame duck congress” who was totally subsurvient and quick to pass laws. And as for Jefferson, Lurio admires his geniusness and political capability on page 3 of the cartoon and a few words later does he call him a real S.O.B.. In the cartoon Jefferson is also called a jerk and the devil. Jefferson told Madison not to deliver the commissions solely because for personal reasons and free from party biases. Lurio’s comments on key players added depth to the cartoon that are easily overlooked the first time through. The cartoon was successful at intertwining the facts and opinions of the